KANSAS CITY, KAN. ----- The Kansas City Kansas Community College Debate Team recently wrapped up its competition semester with a tournament at the University of Northern Iowa Dec. 7 and 8. The tournament was a great success for the KCKCC Blue Devils.
In the Varsity Division, two KCKCC teams went undefeated (both 6-0) in preliminaries and went onto the elimination rounds of the Elite 8. Both advanced through the Elite 8 and defeated teams from the University of Michigan and the University of Minnesota, both from the Big 10 conference, in the Final Four.
The KCKCC teams of Brian Gonzaba and Matt Casas, both of Omaha, Neb. and Alex Glanzman, of Lawrence, Kan. and Katie Ford, of Fremont, Neb., finished first and second.
In addition to winning the tournament, the debaters all received top 10 speaker awards – Casas, Top Speaker of the tournament; Gonzaba, second place; Glanzman, fourth place and Ford, eighth place.
In preliminaries, Casas and Gonzaba had wins over Minnesota, Michigan as well as Augustana and Concordia colleges. Glanzman and Ford had wins over Minnesota, Concordia, Augustana, and Lindenwood.
In the Novice Division, the KCKCC team of Michael Smith, of Independence, Mo. and Ashley Shockley, of Kansas City, Kan., also compiled a perfect 6-0 record with wins over Johnson County Community College, Lindenwood, Northern Iowa, Capital University and Augustana.
They advanced through the Elite 8 before losing to Capital in the Final Four. Smith and Shockley ultimately place third in the tournament. In addition, Smith was named sixth best speaker and Shockley place eighth.
“As the head coach, I am extremely pleased with how these students have worked and performed this semester,” said Darren Elliott, KCKCC debate coach. “This is one of our most successful first semesters, and I could not be more pleased.”
This tournament concluded an amazing semester for the Blue Devils that included winning tournament divisions at Weber State, the University of Central Oklahoma, KCKCC and Georgia State University. The team finishes the semester as the No. 1 ranked Community College in the country in both National Debate Tournament (NDT) and the Cross Examination Debate Association (CEDA) rankings.
The weekend performance at UNI also propelled the team to second place in the nation among all colleges and universities in CEDA points standings.
This puts KCKCC ranked above George Mason, the University of Oklahoma, Northwestern University, Wake Forest University, James Madison University, Harvard, Georgetown, the University of Kansas and the University of Michigan.
For more information on the KCKCC Debate program, contact Darren Elliott at 913-288-7295 or by email at delliott@kckcc.edu.
